We are not strangers here…

Recently I listened to a young man lament that for much of his life time he didn’t feel as if he belonged — he didn’t belong in his family, at his school, in his neighborhood or at his workplace. I asked if there was any place that he was able to experience a sense of belonging and he responded that he felt connected and at peace when he was in the woods or in his canoe. I was immediately reminded of the words of Alan Watts who observed, “you did not come into this world, you came out of it. You are no stranger here.”

How many of us find ourselves at home in the natural world, and how great of a price do those of us who find ourselves estranged from it pay?